Effective Prayer

1 Kings 18:42-45

   Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. "Go an look toward the sea,' he told his servant. And he went up and looked. 'There is nothing there,' he said. Seven times Elijah said, 'Go back.' The seventh time the servant reported, 'A cloud as small as a man's hand is rising form the sea.' So Elijah said, 'Go tell Ahab, "Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you." ' Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came and Ahab rode of to Jezreel." 

Reasons why as believer in the Most High God we should pray.

1) God has commanded and calls us to do it. Psalms 105:4 says; Look to the lord and his strength; seek his face always. Mathew 26, Luke 18, and John 16 all record Jesus himself calling us to prayer. God desires to fellowship and commune with us. Prayer is needed so that we may grow in our relationship with him.

2)Prayer is the link to seeing God's blessings and power manifested in our lives. It is needed so that we may see the fulfillment of of his many promises. Check out Luke 11:5-13, Acts 1:14, Acts 2, Romans 15:30-32, 2 Corinthians 1:11.

3) God calls on us to take part in the redemptive process. "In some respect God has limited himself to the holy, believing, persevering prayers of his people" (LSSB, Zondervan pg. 504). Many times God's power in relation to the progress of his Kingdom is only released through the earnest prayers of believers. Mathew 9:38 says, "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field." Not praying, may actually hinder God's redemptive purpose within our own individual lives as well as within the church. 

Requirements of Effective Prayer

1) A sincere and true faith. Hebrews says, "draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith" (10:22) Mark 11:24 "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

2)Authority in the name of Jesus. "And i will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring Glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and i will do it" (John 14:13-14). 

3) Must be in agreement with God's will and word. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (1 John 5:14). Many times we know God's will because he has revealed it to us in the Bible. Any prayer that is fully based on the promises of God's word will be effective. Elijah was certain of his prayer to bring fire and water because God spoke to him through a prophetic message.  (1 Kings 18:1) Other times God's will becomes clear as we seek him to determine it. Once we are sure of God's will on any issue we can pray in confidence that it will come to pass. 

4) Our lives must be in harmony with God's will. God gives us the things we ask for only if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Mathew 6:33). 1 John 3:22 says that we "receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." An effective prayer comes form an individual who has been made righteous through a belief and faith in Christ, and who is living a God fearing obedient walk.  Psalm 66:18 "If i had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened."

5) Persistent in prayer and faith. We see this principle of persistence all through the old and new testaments. The parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 and in Matthew 7 7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." We again see Moses and the Israelites only had victory as long as Moses kept his hands risen in persistent prayer. Elijah is yet another example of one who believed in persistent prayer (1 Kings 17 and 18)